Long Time Gone!!!

Well, so much for blogging about our summer vacations.  Since June 1, I have had new employees starting every month.  I had 5 start June 1, another 2 on July 1, August 1 and September 1.  It's like having new babies EVERY MONTH!!!  We start the process all over of teaching them the rules, training them on systems and bringing them into our work "family".  It's exhausting and fun at the same time!  We have been training on the systems and processes all summer and we're all anxious to start the real work!!  BRING IT ON!!!

                Back to summer vacations.  We did go on a fabulous cruise in July out of Barcelona that headed to Monte Carlo, Rome, Pisa, Pompeii, Sorrento and Sicily.  AMAZING!!!  Just some brief interesting things we saw:

Barcelona:

·         When we arrived in Barcelona it was like a breath of fresh air hearing a familiar foreign language that we could actually speak!!!  I LOVED speaking Spanish there!

·         In Barcelona among all the historical buildings, Mitchell was enthralled with the....GRAFITTI!!!  Really!  There was graffiti everywhere and he seemed to like looking at that more than the old buildings.

·         In addition to little cars and double decker busses, there were also TONS of Vespa's everywhere.  We saw many women driving around on Vespa's with skirts, flip flops, high heels.  Pretty much anything goes.

·         It was tough adjusting to paying for everything in Euro as opposed to Durham.  We went to a Tapas (no...not topless) restaurant one night along Las Ramblas (a very famous and busy street in Barcelona) and got absolutely robbed when we realized our dinner was $160 euro!!!  For basically drinks and some plates of hot appetizers.  That's about $200!!!  Yikes!  Another afternoon after a long day of touring and walking we stopped along Las Ramblas for drinks.  We spent 30 Euro ($40!!) for one beer, one sprite and one sangria!!!  It was almost worth it to be able to sit down and people watch.  Actually while we were relaxing there, we were able to watch a street performer (a guy who dressed up like a bronze cowboy statue) get ready for "work" and put his outfit and makeup on.  It was a pretty cool experience.

Monte Carlo:

·         Such a small country that we couldn't find a taxi ANYWHERE so we walked all around the city.

·         Around where all the famous casinos were, we saw 7 Ferrari's cruising and 3 of the 7 had Dubai plates!

Rome:

·         Too much history to even list it all...The Coliseum, St. Peter's Basilica, Trevi Fountain and more!

·         We went to a great Italian restaurant with the most delicious tiramisu!!  I have never really liked tiramisu but I tried it there and WOW!!!  I said I would never eat it again because it would never be as good!

Pompeii/Sorrento:

·         We went to a Cameo factory in Pompeii and saw an 80 year old man making a Cameo by hand.  They use conch shells to carve the Cameo's.  He had been making Cameos since he was 10...70 YEARS!!!

·         They make a lot of Lemoncello in Pompeii and it is made with lemon rinds.  They grew lemons there that were as big if not bigger than grapefruits!

Out of all the excursions and sightseeing we did on the cruise, I think Mitchell's favorite thing was going to the Carnival Kids Club!!!  CRAZY!

I had about 11 days in Dubai during Ramadan the beginning of August...this is where the Muslims fast from all food, water, basically they can't put anything in their mouth from sun up to sun down.  The only Muslims exempt from the month-long fast are people who are 1) really old, 2) young children 3) insane, 4) pregnant or 5) menstruating.  I heard on the radio that Muslim leaders got together and decided that it was OK for people to wear nicotine patches during Ramadan but people could not use nose or ear drops because they all end up in their stomach!!  People are not even supposed to swallow their own SPIT!  I had some guys working for me who were constantly using tissues to spit into.  YUCK!!!  During Ramadan, all public restaurants are closed during daylight hours.  Mall food courts were closed.  Most restaurants would deliver all day long.   No restaurants would open until evening call to prayer, which I started calling (very disrespectfully) "the dinner bell".  We would be at the mall in the evening wanting to go to dinner and no restaurants would start serving or even taking orders until the music sounded that it was "call to prayer."  It was a little more relaxed where I work in the Free Zone because our food court was actually open with people eating there in public.  Quite interesting!

In August Chad & Mitchell went to Washington DC for a few days on their way back to Houston.  Chad started up his business again while he was home.  I met them in Houston for a whirlwind week of visiting friends and family....Chad's dad's 70th birthday party, Chad's 20th high school reunion and lots of other running around and shopping. 

After that we headed to Walt Disney World in Florida for a week.  We met my parents there for the week and my aunt Barb even came to visit us for 4 days.  We had a BLAST (or should I say "A Magical Time!")  We stayed in a Pirate room where the beds looked like ships, the carpet looked like wooden deck boards, the dressers looked like crates and our refrigerator was inside a wooden barrel!  We wore ourselves out walking all over the parks, seeing the shows and riding the rides.  Mitchell actually got picked to go on stage and help during a bird show at Animal Kingdom.  I will say that Mitchell is a complete dare devil and LOVED all the rides...the faster and crazier the better!!!

One of the highlights of the trip for Mitchell was going on two different pirate adventures.  During one they went out on a pirate ship and looked for buried treasure.  The other was at Magic Kingdom and he was made up to look like Captain Jack Sparrow!  We paid for the costume (he may be a pirate for the next 5 Halloweens for what it cost us!)  They had make-up artists do his face up like a pirate, scars, a black-eye and all!  After he was looking like a true pirate, they had him take the pirate oath!  That same afternoon, they gathered all the kids who participated in the "adventure" and had a small parade and got "pirate lessons."  It was really cute!

We got back to Dubai via a 27 hour trip from Orlando to Washington DC to Zurich!  Luckily we arrived on Wednesday August 31 and had a long weekend before I had to return to work on September 4th and Mitchell started school on September 5th.  Whew!  We needed the rest!

Since we've been back we've been getting into a routine again.  Mitchell started Cub Scouts and is having a blast.  Mitchell's teacher is GREAT!!!  Very observant and consistent with discipline...just what he needs!

I'm still "studying" the city and its differences/idiosyncrasies. 

·         I am a greeter at our church and we have navy golf shirts that really only look good with light colored pants or jeans.  The Friday after Labor Day I was getting ready for church and went to wear my white Capri pants with my greeter shirt.  I asked Chad if it was OK to wear white after Labor Day in Dubai....His reply "Go to any mall and look around!!!"  There are ALWAYS men wearing their white dishdasha!!  When I got to church, two other ladies were wearing white pants with their navy shirts!  Whew...no fashion faux pas here!

·         A man I work with bought a new Lexus and after a few weeks I noticed he still had the plastic wrapping on all the head rests.  Me, being the nosy (I prefer inquisitive) person I am, asked him why (since I have noticed a lot of people do that here.)  His reply...he was too busy to remove them.  WHATEVER!!!  I KNOW there's got to be a better story than THAT!

·         For over a month there was a leaking pipe in our parking garage.  Instead of fixing the leak, building "maintenance" put a bucket under the dripping pipe that was too small to hold all the water that would leak each day.  Every morning I would go into the lake AKA parking garage and see guys using a squeegee to push the water into the drain.  I guess plumbers are more expensive than laborers!

·         On a similar subject, when I was driving down the ramp in our apartment parking garage one day, I saw a guy CLEANING THE WALLS of the ramps.  Yes!  Seriously!!!  Priorities here are JACKED UP!!!

·         Our Cable TV and home phone went out on Sunday, October 2nd.  We called that evening to our service provider and they told us someone would call us within 48 hours to schedule repairs.  Four days later I missed a call on my cell phone while I was in a meeting.  I called them back, only to be told that since I didn't answer, my service ticket had been cancelled BUT, I was more than willing to file a new service ticket and someone would call me within 48 hours!!!  SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!  I went crazy on the poor customer service person.  They kept telling me the problem was fixed and all I had to do was to turn off the MAIN POWER SWITCH to our apartment for a few seconds and everything would be reset and working properly.  After doing that 3 different times (yes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results)...I insisted that they send someone out!  They finally did on Sunday, October 9th and all is well.  It really is exhausting getting anything resembling repair work done around here!

Summer in Dubai

Sorry my blogs have been few and far between after my first 5 employees started on June 1st.  It has been a whirlwind!  If I wasn't concerned about privacy issues, the blogs I would have on supervising an international staff would astound and amaze.  All-in-all it's been wonderful!  We have a great group of people who are really coming together as a team.  They're smart and fun to work with.  

Here's just a few tid-bits of more wacky Dubai.

·         Not sure if I've mentioned it before but, since most restaurants don't serve alcohol, they all have these long menu's of "Mocktails."  They serve cranberry juice & sprite (would be much better with vodka), lime juice (hello...add some tequila!), strawberry daiquiris with no RUM!  These drinks cost around $5 or more...and they don't have alcohol!!!  Can you say RIP OFF?!?!?!  We were at dinner one night and Chad ordered a diet Coke and they served it with a slice of lemon.  He looked at me and said "I'm surprised they don't call this a mock rum & coke and charge $6 for it!"  I'm surprised no one has thought of that here!

·         We had our workers come to our office to hang pictures.  There were THREE MEN attempting to hang 1 wall clock!!!  Enough said!

·         We went to Wild Wadi again this weekend.  WOW!  The people watching there is AMAZING!  Here are just some of the things we saw:

o   Many women wearing Abaya swimsuits!  Yes, covered from head to toe in swim material.

o   Many young "local" girls wearing leggings under their swimsuits

o   Some young "foreign/European" girls ~ 8 and under just wearing their bikini bottoms, no top and a sun hat!  Don't want to get sunburn!  :-)

o   Three men walking around together all wearing matching boxer shorts as swim trunks.  It's like they went to the mall on their way to the water park and picked up a 3-pack of boxers so they would each have a "swimsuit."

o   More than one young boy wearing briefs as a swimsuit!

o   Many EXTREMELY overweight women in 2-piece swimsuits!

·         Mitchell has adjusted very well.  We ran into a couple in the elevator and the man was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers football jersey.  I pointed it out to Mitchell who promptly told the man he played "American Football" for the Steelers.  It's amazing how quickly you pick up new lingo.

·         Wednesday, June 29th has been scheduled for a UAE holiday since I arrived in January.  About two weeks before that, the government decided to be generous and move the holiday to Thursday, June 30th to give everyone a 3 day weekend.  Why they couldn't have figured out in January is beyond me.  Welcome to my world!!!

·         On the holiday we planned to meet some friends at the movie theatre to see Cars 2.  We had pre-purchased our assigned seats and were meeting them in front of the theatre around 2:15 for a 2:30 movie.  We arrived at the mall before 2PM to give us plenty of time to park and get to the theatre.  When we arrived we circled and circled and circled the parking garage and finally headed to the roof where we found a parking space about as far away from the theatre as possible, but at least there were quite a few spaces available.  When we left the mall around 5PM, there were no parking spaces in sight!!  It was like being at the Galleria on Christmas Eve.  I would guess the parking lot was at about 110% of capacity.  The extra 10% of the cars were just circling like vultures waiting for someone to leave.

·         We went to another movie on Friday, Transformers 3...don't waste your time or money!!  We had never been to that movie theatre before.  They actually had a person making crepes to order at the movie concession stand!

·         The weather here in Dubai is getting warmer but still hasn't felt "Houston Hot" to me yet.  We have had days pushing 110 but it hasn't been nearly as humid...yet.  The strange thing about the weather here is that it's typically beautiful, sunny and cloudless.  The problem is DUST!  This past weekend the dust storms were out of control.  We didn't spend much time outdoors but when driving anywhere visibility is horrible due to all the dust.  I was less than 2 miles from the Burj Khalifa and I couldn't even see it!  It's kind of like fog but never burns off.  It's been dusty for 3 - 4 days and it's expected to continue like this for at least a couple more days.  Strange!

We leave on Friday July 8th to go to Barcelona, Spain on vacation.  We spend a couple days in Barcelona and then we're leaving on the Carnival Magic on July 10th for a 7-day cruise to Monte Carlo and 4 different ports in Italy.  We can't WAIT!!!  I hope to have at least a little time to blog about it when I get back but I'm not optimistic! 

Miscellaneous Ramblings & People Watching

I have realized that the malls...any of the malls here...are a hotbed for people watching!!  You'll be happy to know that I may NEVER run out of material as long as I keep shopping!  Chad, Mitchell and I were at Mall of the Emirates Thursday evening eating dinner.  Mitchell had to go to the bathroom in the middle of dinner.  That's where the fun started:

·         Most restaurants DO NOT have bathrooms in them here so you have to leave the restaurant and find the nearest public "toilet".

·         On the walk to the bathroom, I saw a woman in an abaya being followed by her nanny pushing her baby in a stroller and holding the hand of another small child.  It got me thinking; if you have a nanny to take care of your kids, why drag them all to the mall?!?!?  Leave the nanny and the kids at home and enjoy the mall in PEACE!!!

·         While waiting for Mitchell outside the men's room, I saw a man push his shopping cart ALL THE WAY INTO THE MEN'S room!  Not sure what he did with it while he was in there.  A short time later, he pushed it back out and off he went! 

·         When we arrived back at the restaurant we sat down to continue our meal and a couple and their ~7 month old baby were seated next to us.  The baby was in her stroller and the mother took a medium sized plastic bag out of the stroller and took out a small container of baby food.  She handed the container to her husband who asked the waiter to heat it up.  She handed the EMPTY PLASTIC BAG TO THE BABY TO PLAY WITH!!!!  SERIOUSLY!!!  The first thing the baby did was stick it straight into her mouth!!!  Chad and I looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief.  We almost asked them if they wanted our knife so she could play with that too!  UNBELIEVABLE!!

I was walking down the hall in our office building today and saw a man with a bucket of water and a wash rag cleaning the baseboards in the hallway!  You gotta hand it to them here...they like to keep things spotless!

·         Pizza delivery includes LOADS of ketchup!  There are countless people here who eat ketchup on their pizza.  YUCK!  YUCK!  YUCK!  If you ask me!

·         A lot of restaurants have a box of tissues on the tables instead of paper napkins.  Not very useful since they fall apart easily!

·         Dubai Mall - LARGEST MALL IN THE WORLD has machines by all the elevators in the parking garages where you push a button and get a ticket reminding you where on EARTH you parked.  There are so many different entrances and parking garages it is VERY handy.

·         Other malls make you pay for parking if you're there longer than 4 hours on weekdays.  You have to take a parking ticket when you enter the garage and REMEMBER to pay at a machine near the mall exits BEFORE getting into your car and leaving the garage.  When you pay it validates your ticket and spits it back out so you can put it in the machine at the exit.  It may be a surprise to many of you that I have NOT been at a mall longer than 4 hours in the time we've been here!  Even when watching a movie!

Monkeys, Potties and Polygamy

·         I took Mitchell to the beach after church on Friday (still trying to get used to saying that).  It was HOT (DUH) and sunny (double DUH).  We were hanging out by the water and two guys walked by and they had a MONKEY!!  Yes, I said MONKEY.  They had brought their pet monkey to the beach.  Enough said!

·         I know how everyone LOVES my stories about the bathrooms here.  It just hit me this weekend that most of the public bathrooms in malls and at movie theatres all have at least one, if not more, attendants working in them.  When someone leaves the stall, the attendant goes in, mops up the floor if the vegetable sprayer was used, dries off the seat and then lets the next person in the stall.  They also make sure there are no paper towels on the floor or sink.  Very nice and clean!!! 

·         I LOVE the fact that there are assigned seats in movie theatres!  Last Thursday Chad was at the mall early in the day and bought us tickets to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie on opening day.  I would NEVER see a movie on opening day at home because I don't like waiting in lines and I DEFINITELY don't like the idea of being stuck in the front row!  I met Chad & Mitchell at the theatre about 10 minutes before the movie started.  We bought snacks (popcorn for Mitchell, ice cream for Chad and a cup of corn seasoned with butter, salt and chili powder for me...I'm hooked!)  We finally made it into the theatre right about the time the previews were starting and went straight to OUR pre-assigned seats, sat down and enjoyed the movie!  AAAHHHH!!!  THIS IS THE LIFE!

·         Another "I'm in awe of the cars here" story.  I was driving home from work yesterday and I passed a bright orange Lamborghini followed by a bright red Ferrari!  (Mind you, I was only going about 5 KM over the posted speed of 100 km/hr.)  After gawking a bit and checking out their plate numbers, which only had 3 digits each (here the lower the number on the license plate, the more important/prestigious you are, mine is a 5 digit number...shows you my ranking in Dubai society), I went along my way.  A couple minutes later, both cars zoomed past me in the fast lane.  I think some people are exempt from the speed cameras...maybe if you zoom by them fast enough they can't get a good picture of your plate!  Maybe I'll try that!  On second thought, I don't think my car is capable of going that fast...guess I'll stick to the speed limit.

·         I subscribe to an Emirates e-news letter that comes twice/day.  There are articles about world news, business, sports, etc.  Today there was an article in the "news" section about a 63 year old man who has 90 kids.  TWO of his wives are currently expecting children and he's getting married AGAIN in two weeks.  He's shooting for 100 children and thinks that's definitely "within reach"!  The article stated that it was only legal to have 4 wives but this man thinks he could "manage 20 wives if allowed."  I guess he must divorce them when they're past child bearing age. They said he currently maintains 17 houses with 17 separate families.  The article referred to him as "super dad"...SERIOUSLY!?!?!?  THIS is news in these parts!  YUCK!!!

·         When you thank waiters or other workers here, they don't say "You're Welcome".  They only say "Welcome."  Short and sweet!  Kind of interesting.

·         There's a British DJ on the radio station I listen to and I realized that when she pronounces words ending in "A" she speaks them as if they end in "R".  So, "America" becomes "Americ-er"; Asia is "Asier".   Even one of the singers at our church who I believe is from Australia (or Austrailier) was singing a song with Hallelujah and it was "Hallelujer".  Interesting...and a little funny!

·         On my way into work this morning I noticed a worker sweeping the side of the road just by the curb.  Mind you, this is a very busy exit with about 4 lanes and he's sweeping up dirt and debris, with no mind to the traffic, using a ratty looking broom and a cardboard box wrapped in plastic as his dustpan.  They like to keep this city clean!  The day prior at the same area, another man was using hedge trimmers to clip back some purple looking ground cover so it was no longer growing over the sidewalk (I've never seen anyone but these workers walking on the sidewalk in the 4 months I've been making my drive to work - it's under an overpass next to a busy street).  I was surprised to see him wearing work gloves - worker safety is so lax over here it's sad.

News & More Dubai Ramblings

·         Big News:  WE HAVE A CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE!!!!  The contract with a buyer was finalized the DAY our contract to sell it to the company would have been initiated.  That basically means since we sold it to someone instead of the company having to take it into inventory, we get a 2% seller's bonus!  YIPPEE!!! 

·         Interesting News:  Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum visited Mitchell's school on Monday, May 9th to inaugurate the school.  They had all the kids line up and wave UAE flags.  (When Mitchell told us about the flag waving, I asked if they waved American or UAE flags...I should have known the answer before I asked!)  They gave him a tour of the school and the video is posted on "His Highness' website.  The link is below if you're interested.  It's about 7 minutes long but if you watch it, you'll get to see a tour of his school.  It's like a college campus!

http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=dd9c700f595df210VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&vgnextchannel=e381f9b743cb4110VgnVCM100000b0140a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=videoLibrary&ID=cd9c700f595df210VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0____&date=1304962842713

·         Sad News:  A man committed suicide by jumping off the Burj Khalifa.  He jumped from the 147th floor and landed on 108!  Supposedly he had an argument with his company over vacation time earlier that day. 

Other Ramblings

·         It's amazing how international Dubai is.  We went to a Bunco party a week ago and out of the 12 people at the party there were 6 people from the US.  Out of those 6, one woman had been married to a Saudi national for over 25 years and had been living in Saudi and/or Dubai ever since.  Another one of the 6 Americans had traveled to Lebanon when she was 19 for a study abroad program and had married a man from Lebanon and had lived in this part of the world for the past 35+ years.  The other 6 guests were from Scotland, England, Greece, Spain, Saudi and Indonesia!  It was like our own little United Nations event!  Very interesting people!

·         I have never considered myself a car person.  I have never ogled cars in awe...until I moved to Dubai!!!  I cannot believe the cars people DRIVE over here.  I know people have nice cars in Houston but they tend to keep them in a garage, wash and polish them....but not DRIVE them!  People drive Bentleys, Maserati's and Ferrari's as their everyday cars!!  I was on my way home from work last week and saw someone cruising down the freeway in a fire engine red convertible BENTLEY!!!  I almost had an accident staring!  Maserati has offices in our office building and they have about 6 different Maserati's parked in the garage.  I walk past them every day on the way to my fun, fabulous Chevy!  It takes every ounce of restraint in my body to not rub my hand over the hood!   I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing all these luxury cars on a daily basis.  People drive Porsche's, BMW's and Mercedes here like we drive Honda's and Toyota's in the States! 

·         Feet are EVERYWHERE over here!  Men mostly wear sandals and their feet are gross and calloused.  Regardless, they feel no shame in showing them off.  As soon as men sit down in public places (benches in the malls and along the Marina Walk, in RESTAURANTS, WHEREVER), they tend to remove their shoes...maybe even pick at them.  SERIOUSLY NASTY AND DISGUSTING!!!  Sorry, I couldn't keep this to myself!!!  I've even seen WOMEN in restaurants with their bare feet up on the chairs or benches and their shoes on the floor.  YUCK!

·         Carpeted dash boards & plastic seats!  I have seen quite a number of cars here with thick, fuzzy rugs covering their ENTIRE dashboard.  I'm surprised they can see over the 2" + thick carpet.  I'm not sure of the purpose of this carpet.  I've seen this in vans and in regular cars.  If it's a car with a nook in the back between the back seat and the window, that area has carpet too!!!  Other cars still have factory plastic wrap over the seats and head rests.  Mind you, these are NOT new cars.  Not sure if this is to somehow protect the seats from the sun or from the smelly drivers and passengers?!?!?

·         I'm finding the warmer it gets outside, the more layers and the warmer I dress.  The temperature difference between the outside air and the air conditioned buildings is HUGE.  So much for never being cold now that I've moved to the desert!

·         We went to a beach club and lunch at a really nice hotel close to our apartment the other day.  When we were leaving, I was reading some of the signs directing visitors to different facilities/amenities of the hotel.  One of the signs read "Hair Saloon" with an arrow pointing to the "Saloon".  I was cracking up that they mis-spelled Salon.  Then I got to thinking how a Hair Saloon would work...do they shoot the hair off your head?  Do you get beer and a bowl of nuts when getting at haircut at the saloon?  Just thinking! 

·         There's a grocery store here called "Safestway".  From what I hear it used to be a Safeway but, when Safeway pulled out, the new owners were too cheap to change the signage.  This is supposed to be the store where you can get all kinds of American brands of food.  I went there the other day to look for Rotel and tortillas.  I left with 3 bags of groceries and $55 less in my wallet.  The things I couldn't resist...Vlasic Dill pickles, Nestle Toll House pre-made cookie dough, Rotel, Velveta, Ruffles potato chips and Tostito's brand tortilla chips, just to name a few things.  The only problem was that the store was NASTY!  I felt dirty when I left.  I don't think I'll ever need American brand food bad enough to go there ever again!

·         Joe Cocker is coming to Dubai...again, thought he was dead.  Think we'll pass on the concert.

·         More bands I have heard on the radio that I forgot existed...Joan Jett (I LOVE ROCK N ROLL!), A Ha (Take on me...take on me; take me on - gotta sing it); Culture Club (AKA Boy George); Howard Jones and the group that sings "Come on Irene"!  Now try not singing THAT all day!

Dubai Differences - Random Ramblings

Well, we've been here almost 4 months now.  Here are some additional interesting things I'm finding.

·         The radio station I listen to plays "Hits from the 80's 90's AND NOW!"  I feel like I'm back in the 80's listening to it.  On a daily basis I hear songs from any number of groups from when I was growing up like:  Duran Duran, John Cougar, Bryan Adams, Bananarama (pronounced Baaahnaaahnaaahraaahma), Prince, Wham (YES, I said WHAM), Earth Wind & Fire, Pointer Sisters, Billy Idol and the list goes on and on.  Songs I had forgotten existed but, surprisingly, I still remember ALL the words!

·         Lines at stores are also called queues and people like to stand REALLY CLOSE to you.  We have started putting our "buggies" (AKA grocery carts) behind us when we're at stores so we don't have smelly people breathing down our necks...LITERALLY!

·         I also hear ads for concerts coming to town for groups/people I didn't think were even together/alive anymore.  Stevie Wonder played a couple months ago.  Roxette is coming...I thought they were a one-hit wonder, not sure how they would play for more than 15 minutes.  Even Belinda Carlisle is scheduled to play.  Not sure who's attending these concerts.  Not me!

·         When they talk about traffic accidents they mention how many kilometers the "queue" has gotten.  Occasionally a "lorry" (AKA truck) will be in an accident.  It's the same language but different.  I'm already noticing that I'm picking up on some things.  I have recently asked people to get things done "as SWIFTLY as possible."  I sound OH SO sophisticated!  :-)

·         When I talk about having a "cell" phone people look at me like I'm from Mars.  It's a "mobile" phone - pronounced:  mob-eye-le.  I'm learning!

·         Occasionally we will get into an empty elevator and IMMEDIATELY look at one another in horror and start to hold our breath because the lingering body odor of the previous occupant(s) is still permeating the air!!  Yikes!  What does this summer hold!  Sends shivers up my spine just thinking about it!

·         As I've commented (complained) about previously, people drive like MAD around here.  The government is trying to encourage people to be better drivers so they post interesting messages on electronic signs along the freeway.  One read "Plan your route" I assume encouraging people to get in the lane they need in BEFORE they need to exit.  As opposed to the typical practice of cutting across 4 lanes of traffic and cutting ME off to make their exit.  Another sign read...exactly "Be Ware of other's fault."  The next day it was changed to "Be careful of other's fault".  One I see all the time and still don't know what it means is "Use dipped lights in tunnel."  I have no idea what "dipped lights" are.  I may never know.  My car has auto lights so I'm just hoping my car knows how and when to "dip" its lights!  Ha!

·         Another think I have to be VERY careful about is turning OFF my car when I get gas.  Surprisingly, they don't MAKE you turn it off!!!  It's so easy to pull up, open the window, tell them to "fill it up", and completely forget to turn it off.  Next thing you know I'll be smoking with the car running while getting gas!!!  Just kidding...I really haven't taken up smoking even though it's completely cheap here without all the taxes!

·         I have to catch myself when communicating with other offices.  I was typing a note and about to put "we need to have all the BASES covered" but changed it to "all AREAS covered."  Not sure if everyone understands the baseball references.  I know if someone tried to use a cricket reference with me I would be more than lost!

·         I know they told me it was going to get hot over her and they didn't lie!  It's heating up!  It has hit over 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day the past week.  Funny though, it's more of a dry heat and it's not that bad...YET!

Social Butterflies!

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

                Mitchell only had school Monday and Tuesday of this week because parent-teacher conferences were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.  I took Wednesday off to go to the parent-teacher conference in the morning.  His teacher is very nice and told us how sweet and helpful Mitchell is in the classroom.  He is also goofy, stubborn and disruptive when he wants to be!  She was very positive and said he's doing very good catching up to the other students and learning the ropes.

                At one point during the meeting she made reference to his report card.  I asked "When will they be sent home?"  Her reply was that they had been sent home a couple weeks prior!!  OOPS!  Talk about feeling like an idiot!  I tried to cover my tracks telling her I rarely look in Mitchell's backpack because that's HIS responsibility...making sure he has what he needs for school.  Not sure if she bought it but we signed the report card over the weekend and sent it back to school on Sunday! 

                After our conference, we headed straight to Wild Wadi, another one of the many local water parks.  We met up with 4 other families so it was me, Chad, Mitchell, 4 other women and their multitude of kids!!  Chad said he felt like a wealthy Arab man hanging out with all his wives and children!  He's just SOOO funny!

                The water park overlooks the Burj al Arab and while we were there we saw two helicopters land and take off on the helipad attached to the hotel.  Very cool!

                There were some amazing rides at the park.  On one we went down in a 4-person tube and we felt like we were being flushed down a toilet!  There was another we went on with either single or double tubes and there were high power water pumps that pushed you uphill and spun you around...CRAZY!  

They also had a water tank with the "fish pedicures" where you sit on the side of the tank with your feet and calves in the water and the fish basically eat away the dead skin on your feet and legs.  (Nice to visualize.)  Mitchell wanted to do it so we paid for it thinking it would be funny.  The fee covered twenty minutes of sitting with your feet in the tank.  He NEVER sits still for that long so that should have been a warning to us!  He sat down and put his feet in the water, the fish rushed to his legs and feet and he immediately pulled his feet out of the water.  He stuck them in again for another second and was DONE!  Luckily they let me take his spot so I sat down and gave it a go!  At first it tickled like CRAZY then I kind of got used to it.  After the 19 minutes and 30 seconds, my turn was up.  I didn't really notice any difference in my feet.  Probably wouldn't waste money on THAT again but at least I can say I've tried it!

                During the day we went to a park restaurant to order lunch.  Mitchell and I decided to share a hamburger.  Well, I guess due to the pork ban, hamburgers in these parts are called "Beef Burgers" instead of hamburgers...which really makes sense when you think about it!  After Mitchell heard me order the "Beef Burger" he started arguing with me that he wanted a HAMburger and not a BEEFburger!  I explained that they were the same thing....unfortunately when we got the beefburger, it didn't taste like ham or beef!  Not sure what it was but we ate it and were thankful that the fries were good!

                At about 6:00 PM we were thoroughly EXHAUSTED and finally headed home! 

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

                Today was a whirlwind!!!  I was working, Mitchell was off school and Chad had work to do too.  Chad, Mitchell & I met our friends Bobbie & Kent and two of their kids for lunch at Festival City Mall.  After lunch, I headed back to work, Chad headed home to work and Mitchell headed off with our friends to the pool at Wafi Hotel - pilots and their families have access to use the pools and gym facilities at some of the local hotels...SWEET!  I picked Mitchell up from their house after work, headed straight home, picked up Chad and we went to Mitchell's school for a Boy Scout fun night.  They had a bunch of games set up for them to play (flag football, baseball, ping pong, swimming, basketball and hockey).  We were there from about 6:15 until almost 9PM.  After THAT, we went to our friends Judy and Jim's house for an after-party party!  We were there until about MIDNIGHT!!  UGGH!  And the weekend hadn't even started yet!!!

               

Friday, April 29th, 2011

                Another whirlwind of a day.  Church at 9am then I headed to LuLu's to pick up a few things for Mitchell's birthday party and headed BACK to church because Chad was leading a small group leader's meeting after 2nd service.  The meeting started around 1PM and luckily included lunch!  I helped babysit a sweet little 9 month old girl named Jemimah (nicknamed MiMi).  Mitchell helped me entertain her, when he wasn't watching Phineas & Ferb on the IPad.  Close to the end of the meeting I realized MiMi was wet and I promptly gave her back to her mother!  Later Mitchell told me that the baby was cute but "She smelled funny!"  Must have been the wet diaper!

                We didn't get home from church until after 3PM.   We rushed around our house like crazy trying to make it "boy proof" in preparation for Mitchell's birthday party the next day!

                That evening, we met our pastor and his wife at Uno's Pizzeria at the Dubai Mall for dinner...yep, the same Uno's we have in the US but no pork sausage on the pizza...really!?!?!?  What's the point of pizza without pork products?!?!?  We didn't get home until after 9PM.  WHEW!

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

                Mitchell kept calling today his "30th Birthday" because his REAL birthday was April 7th but his party was on the 30th!  

                We pushed all of our furniture to the perimeter of our living room/dining room combo and set up 3 "Battle Stations" (basically ~ 16" in diameter clear plastic bowls with flat bottoms) for the Beyblade Tournament!  (In case you have NO CLUE what a Beyblade is...it's a glorified metal and plastic TOP!  Yes, tops are still a hit with kids...you just need to jazz them up a bit.  You stick the tops into launchers to make them spin really fast.  Two kids launch their Beyblades into the stadium at once and the last top spinnig is the winner!)   Chad worked up a Tournament Bracket system on a large piece of poster board.  We were ready for the festivities to begin!

                The party started at 11:00AM and most of the kids were surprisingly prompt.  We had supplies to let them assemble a new Beyblade for them to keep when they got there and then they just played around.  We finally started the "Tournament" around 11:30.  We were expecting each match (best 3 of 5) to take at least 10 minutes and they were done in a FLASH!!!!  Yikes!  So, after the first round, we let them "practice" for about 10 minutes before we started the Semi-Finals!  Again, the semi's were over very quickly.  We ended up with three boys in the final round which worked out really well because we had Gold, Silver and Bronze metals as the "prize" (along with bragging rights, of course!)  After the winners were decided, we made a big production of presenting the metals and let the 1st place winner stand on a stool in the middle with the 2nd and 3rd place winners on either side for pictures with them wearing their metals and holding up their Beyblades.  They LOVED it!  Mitchell ended up the champion which was good and bad.

                The noon pizza delivery finally arrived around 12:20PM (I was VERY disappointed, but not in ANY way surprised...even after calling to confirm!)  All the boys sat on the floor and ate pizza and drank juice boxes and/or water.  Shortly after that, we lit the candles and were going to sing "Happy Birthday."  The funniest thing was when we were getting ready to sing.  The cake with all the lit candles was on the table with all the boys surrounding it, we said "OK, one, two, three" to have everyone start singing.  Well, one boy thought the countdown was for blowing out the candles and he blew them ALL OUT!!  We were cracking up!  It just so happened to be my friend Judy's son and she was mortified!  We re-lit the candles sang "Happy Birthday" and then Mitchell blew out the candles.  THEN, the kids who had been in Dubai for a while sang Mitchell "Happy Birthday" in Arabic!  Very cool!

                Finally, it was about 15 minutes before the party was scheduled to end; we had Mitchell open all his presents.  He was sitting in Chad's big leather chair and, again, all the other boys were crowded around.  Mitchell had just enough time to open all the presents before parents started calling from our circle drive for their kids.  PERFECT!!!

                By about 1:30PM that afternoon (30 minutes after the party was over) we had everything cleaned up and you would never have guessed that 11 boys and 5 adults had a party there!  YES!!!  Time to relax!!!  That afternoon we just hung out and watched a movie Mitchell got from one of his friends as a birthday present.

                It was a great 30th Birthday! 

Easter Weekend in Dubai

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

                We got up and went to church Friday morning.  With church being on Friday it was basically a Good Friday service.  Since Chad had been hired earlier that week they wanted to introduce us at both services and let Chad say a few things in front of the congregation.  During the first service, Mitchell was in kid's church and they put our picture on the big screen and Pastor Jim introduced Chad and said he was here with his wife Jill "and DAUGHTER" Mitchell!!!  We were cracking up!  Luckily he got it right during 2nd service because Mitchell was with us!  He wouldn't have liked being called a girl in a room full of people!

Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011

                Our church had a sunrise service on the beach at 6AM.  UGH it was HARD getting up early enough to get ready and get there that early!  Luckily the beach where the service was held was only about 10 minutes from our house AND we had driven around to find exactly where we were supposed to be the day before so we wouldn't get lost on the way and miss the service...pre-planning Dubai Style!  We all brought breakfast items so we could have breakfast together on the beach after the service.  We dropped off our store bought croissants, muffins and juice on tables set up on the beach and were each handed a daisy.  We headed up to the area where the service would be held and there was a large wooden cross in the sand.  We could see the Burj al Arab not too far in the distance...although it was called a "sunrise service", the sun was already up before 6AM thanks to no daylight savings time!

                We sang songs, heard a message and then were asked to bring our flowers and put them on the cross to turn something of pain and suffering into something of beauty.  We sang songs as the crowd of about 400 people made their way to the cross.  When the service was over, we all gradually made it up to the tables of food and had a small brunch together.  We stayed and visited until about 9am. 

                About 2PM that afternoon we went to the home of our friends from church (Bobbie & Kent Boston - not actually from Boston!) for a late Easter lunch.  There were a total of 4 couples and 8 kids.  As soon as we walked in the door, Mitchell was off like a shot playing with my friend's 8 year-old son and the other boys.  We all ate a little while later, kids in the kitchen and adults at the dining room table!  We just sat and visited the rest of the afternoon!  Everyone was so nice and fun it was like we had known them for years. 

                Right before we left, I remembered I had stuffed Easter eggs for Mitchell and Gabe to have an Easter egg hunt (great idea from my mother AND since I had brought about 40 plastic eggs from the US, I thought I would put them to use!)  By the way, good call on my part brining them because it cost about $5 USD/dozen here vs. $1 in the States!  We quickly hid the eggs and the boys loved it!  They weren't very good finders so one of the other moms would go near a hiding spot and start humming and/or whistling so it wouldn't take all night for them to find the eggs!

                We finally got home, thoroughly exhausted at about 7PM!  It was a wonderful day with new experiences & new friends!  We are truly blessed to have met such amazing people so quickly!